Duke receives final safety evaluation for William States Lee nuclear plant

08 August 2016

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its final safety evaluation report (SER) for combined licences for two proposed nuclear power units at the William States Lee III site.

In its response to Duke Energy's application for the approval for AP1000 reactors at the site in South Carolina, the NRC concluded there were no safety concerns that would inhibit a construction and operating license for the project.

Duke submitted a combined construction and operation licence (COL) application with the NRC for the proposed Lee plant at the end of 2007. The application is based on two Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors with a combined capacity of 2234 MWe at a greenfield site near Gaffney in Cherokee County.

In October 2012, Duke informed the NRC that it planned to relocate the two units "in order to manage project construction risks". Both units will be relocated 66 feet (20 metres) south and unit 1 will be relocated 50 feet (15 metres) east. At that time Duke expected that, "The impacts of relocation on the Lee COL application will be minor and are expected to simplify COL application presentation and improve margins to associated acceptance criteria."

Duke said in July 2013, when a delay in the site safety evaluation was announced, that it would maintain a target completion date for the new power plant proposal for some time in the 2020s.

The final SER and the final environmental impact statement on the application will be submitted for the mandatory hearing phase of the licensing process. The hearing, during which the NRC will vote on whether or not to authorize its staff to issue the licenses for the reactors, is expected to be completed this year.